It felt like destiny, right from the start, from the moment Commissioner Adam Silver delivered that crushing blow to Donald Sterling. The Clippers would be a team liberated from anxiety. The Warriors would be their able but vanquished opponent inside the pulsating, revitalized Staples Center. And so it would be.

History demanded it play out this way. The Warriors aren't finished, not with Game 6 coming up at Oracle Arena on Thursday night and their home crowd preparing for liftoff. But this particular Tuesday took its place in the lore of social justice, an essential triumph for right vs. wrong. Some days, and events, are bigger than the game.

The Warriors fought like champions throughout a tense fourth quarter. Klay Thompson hit icy-cool jump shots, crisp teamwork found David Lee open for dunks, and Andre Iguodala seemed to be everywhere, finishing with 18 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.

It was the Clippers' defense on Stephen Curry - a reprise from the first three games - that made a difference, Curry hitting only five shots on the night. And for Clippers fans everywhere, there will be the lasting memory of DeAndre Jordan at the free-throw line.

Jordan is a man known to be one of the worst shooters in the league, good for alley-oop dunks and that's about it. Every free throw is an adventure, with no guarantee it will even hit the rim. But Jordan became a symbol of the Clippers' passion this night, emotionally stepping outside himself for the performance of his life.

Jordan was so distraught over the Sterling news on Sunday, he was a vacant, beaten man in Game 4: one shot (a miss) and only six rebounds in 25 minutes. Tuesday's revival wasn't just about his stat line - 25 points and 18 rebounds - but the fact that on four crucial trips to the free-throw line down the stretch, he hit six of the eight shots.

And when one of them banked in, quite accidentally, you knew it was over.

Through it all, Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob must have been the most conflicted man in the NBA. He was invigorated by Silver's decisiveness, thus joining a cast of millions on a truly significant day in league history. But this was a disheartening loss for the Warriors, complete with more bad news about coach Mark Jackson's staff.

As disturbing details came to light about the recent dismissal of assistant coach Darren Erman (see Page B7), it became apparent the Warriors' behind-the-scenes dysfunction is no idle rumor. It is absolute fact. And Jackson seems to be losing allies as he goes.

Just when people were trying to digest the notion of a paranoid assistant coach secretly taping his colleagues' conversations, Zach Lowe of Grantland.com, one of the most respected NBA writers in the business, reported, "Jackson has asked that Jerry West, a high-level adviser in Golden State, not attend most practices and team activities."

The Chronicle confirmed that report with three sources close to the team prior to Tuesday night's game, prompting that time-honored question: What the hell?

First came the demotion of assistant coach Brian Scalabrine, who had been consistently strident in his disagreements with Jackson on basketball matters. Jackson wanted him gone, but Scalabrine, well regarded (as was Erman) by Lacob and general manager Bob Myers, was demoted to the D-League team in Santa Cruz to keep him in the organization.

Erman, according to multiple league sources, had grown paranoid about his place in the coaching hierarchy. He felt Jackson and other assistants were trying to undermine him, so he secretly taped conversations between them, as well as those involving coaches and players. (He was busted, sources say, when his hidden recording device made a noise, alerting everyone in the room.)

It's nothing short of bizarre that the disgraced Erman was recently hired by the Boston Celtics as their scouting director, especially with sources reporting that general manager Danny Ainge was well aware of Erman's violations in Oakland. It raises the question of whether Lacob was somehow involved in Erman's scheme - although I'm not buying it. Lacob is a man of class and good standing, through his over-the-top emotions, and I simply don't believe he'd stoop that low.

This seems more a case of Jackson, so deeply loved and respected by his players, being viewed as incompetent by associates. It has long been rumored that he and West have no respect for each other, and that West feels the Warriors' overall coaching scheme is inexcusably weak. It's not that West is heavily involved in the Warriors' decision-making; he is largely a figurehead. But he's also a legend in NBA circles and a symbol of organizational prestige for Lacob and Myers and co-owner Peter Guber.

What does it all mean? One can't be sure, but this was hardly a day for such murky soap operas. It was a day of clarity: in the league office, with Sterling headed for certain demise, and in the sky. Howling offshore winds blew through the L.A. basin on Tuesday, an unseasonal development complete with 90-degree temperatures. In the absence of smog, people got a rare look at stately mountain ranges well in the distance. The Clippers, meanwhile, could see clearly once again, too.